Dear Members of the UMBC Community,
We are writing to update you on our campus response to addressing systemic racism in our community and nationally.
We are grateful to all of you who shared your experiences and ideas with us over the past few weeks in town hall meetings and personally. We heard you, and we share your sense of urgency. We are committed to living out our UMBC values and to taking action.
We have consulted with campus leaders to appoint a UMBC Inclusion Council, consisting of students, faculty, staff, and alumni working with the campus community. The team’s work begins immediately, and their first meeting will be held in July.
The Inclusion Council has been given the charge of providing advice and guidance from a variety of perspectives to the Office of Equity and Inclusion (OEI), to act as ambassadors for the office across campus, and to provide a venue for discussion of issues as they arise. The Council will hold monthly joint meetings with the University Steering Committee (USC) and the Campus Equity Advisory Council (CEAC), a subcommittee of the USC.
The Council will work with the campus community to identify short- and long-term goals and recommendations. In addition, they will bring many more colleagues into this work by establishing subcommittees.
The Inclusion Council includes:
Co-Chairs
Ariana Arnold, Director, Office of Equity and Inclusion
Keith J Bowman, Dean, College of Engineering and Information Technology
Administrative Lead
Candace Dodson-Reed ’96, President’s Chief of Staff and Executive Director, Office of Equity and Inclusion
Members
Keisha Allen, Assistant Professor, Education
Shannon Ashley ’21, Mathematics and Psychology
Tamara Bhalla, Associate Professor and Acting Chair, American Studies
Nadia BenAissa ’20, Founder, We Believe You
Rob Bennett, Lecturer, English
Carole McCann, Professor and Chair, Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies
Mehrshad Fahim Devin ’22, Biology and Physics, SGA President
David Di Maria, Associate Vice Provost, International Education
Eric Ford, Director, Choice Program
Chris Hawn, Assistant Professor, Geography and Environmental Systems
Loren Henderson, Professor, Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health
Tammy Henderson, Lecturer, Africana Studies
Michael Hunt ’06, M13, Doctoral Student, Language, Literacy, and Culture, and Director, McNair Scholars Program
Thomas Jasmine ’20, Chair, Black Student Union
Jasmine A. Lee, Director of Inclusive Excellence, Student Affairs
Christine Mallinson, Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture, and Director, Center for Social Science Scholarship
Marcela Mellinger, Associate Professor, Social Work
Teresa Michel ’04, Admissions Specialist, Graduate School
Ashley Minner, Professor of the Practice, American Studies
Jess Myers, Director, Women’s Center
Autumn Reed, M.A. ’08, Ph.D. ’14, Assistant Vice Provost, Faculty Affairs, and Director, STRIDE
Chris Steele, Vice Provost, Division of Professional Studies
Nicole Telfer, Doctoral Student, Applied Developmental Psychology, and Founder, Black Graduate Student Association
Shelly Wiechelt, Associate Professor and Chair/Associate Dean, Social Work
Melody Wright, Academic Business Specialist, Biological Sciences, and President, Non-Exempt Staff Senate
We will continue this open dialogue and invite all to share thoughts by emailing the Office of Equity and Inclusion at oei@umbc.edu. We are committed to inclusive excellence in action and have a variety of resources available on the OEI website.
We realize there is much more work for us to do and that it impacts us all. Thank you for your commitment to listening together, learning together, and working together to create lasting change.
President Freeman Hrabowski and Provost Philip Rous
We are writing to update you on our campus response to addressing systemic racism in our community and nationally.
We are grateful to all of you who shared your experiences and ideas with us over the past few weeks in town hall meetings and personally. We heard you, and we share your sense of urgency. We are committed to living out our UMBC values and to taking action.
We have consulted with campus leaders to appoint a UMBC Inclusion Council, consisting of students, faculty, staff, and alumni working with the campus community. The team’s work begins immediately, and their first meeting will be held in July.
The Inclusion Council has been given the charge of providing advice and guidance from a variety of perspectives to the Office of Equity and Inclusion (OEI), to act as ambassadors for the office across campus, and to provide a venue for discussion of issues as they arise. The Council will hold monthly joint meetings with the University Steering Committee (USC) and the Campus Equity Advisory Council (CEAC), a subcommittee of the USC.
The Council will work with the campus community to identify short- and long-term goals and recommendations. In addition, they will bring many more colleagues into this work by establishing subcommittees.
The Inclusion Council includes:
Co-Chairs
Ariana Arnold, Director, Office of Equity and Inclusion
Keith J Bowman, Dean, College of Engineering and Information Technology
Administrative Lead
Candace Dodson-Reed ’96, President’s Chief of Staff and Executive Director, Office of Equity and Inclusion
Members
Keisha Allen, Assistant Professor, Education
Shannon Ashley ’21, Mathematics and Psychology
Tamara Bhalla, Associate Professor and Acting Chair, American Studies
Nadia BenAissa ’20, Founder, We Believe You
Rob Bennett, Lecturer, English
Carole McCann, Professor and Chair, Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies
Mehrshad Fahim Devin ’22, Biology and Physics, SGA President
David Di Maria, Associate Vice Provost, International Education
Eric Ford, Director, Choice Program
Chris Hawn, Assistant Professor, Geography and Environmental Systems
Loren Henderson, Professor, Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health
Tammy Henderson, Lecturer, Africana Studies
Michael Hunt ’06, M13, Doctoral Student, Language, Literacy, and Culture, and Director, McNair Scholars Program
Thomas Jasmine ’20, Chair, Black Student Union
Jasmine A. Lee, Director of Inclusive Excellence, Student Affairs
Christine Mallinson, Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture, and Director, Center for Social Science Scholarship
Marcela Mellinger, Associate Professor, Social Work
Teresa Michel ’04, Admissions Specialist, Graduate School
Ashley Minner, Professor of the Practice, American Studies
Jess Myers, Director, Women’s Center
Autumn Reed, M.A. ’08, Ph.D. ’14, Assistant Vice Provost, Faculty Affairs, and Director, STRIDE
Chris Steele, Vice Provost, Division of Professional Studies
Nicole Telfer, Doctoral Student, Applied Developmental Psychology, and Founder, Black Graduate Student Association
Shelly Wiechelt, Associate Professor and Chair/Associate Dean, Social Work
Melody Wright, Academic Business Specialist, Biological Sciences, and President, Non-Exempt Staff Senate
We will continue this open dialogue and invite all to share thoughts by emailing the Office of Equity and Inclusion at oei@umbc.edu. We are committed to inclusive excellence in action and have a variety of resources available on the OEI website.
We realize there is much more work for us to do and that it impacts us all. Thank you for your commitment to listening together, learning together, and working together to create lasting change.
President Freeman Hrabowski and Provost Philip Rous